Potentially Sick Farmed Elk Herd Roaming Wild on Prairies

[Ithaca 37]

"(Edmonton, Alberta - 6 June 2003) - After a herd of farmed elk was found abandoned on the Alberta-Saskatchewan border, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW?www.ifaw.org) today called for minimum jail time for future offenders.

At a time when Canadian officials are scrambling to regain international confidence in the Canadian meat industry, the discovery of elk that might be sick with mad cow's cousin disease, chronic wasting disease (CWD) roaming free will set Canada back.
"This reckless behavior does little to instill public confidence in the meat industry, and game farming in particular," IFAW campaigner Rob Sinclair said. "With potentially sick animals roaming free around the prairies, what assurance can any game farmer possibly now offer that his animals are healthy?"

http://www.enn.com/direct/display-release.asp?objid=D1D1366D000000F59E054CC81F33FD9C

This is about as irresponsible as anyone could ever get! Whomever did this has jeopardized both game farming and the whole Canadian cattle industry!

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 06-06-2003 22:18: Message edited by: Ithaca 37 ]</font>

 

[JoseCuervo]

Hard to believe somebody with a game farm and high fences would have such a lack of ethics and morals as to do this...

 

[Oak]

This person didn't do anything to convince us game farms are a good idea.

Oak

 

[Ten Bears]

True, but nothing more then "potential harm" can be shown at this time.

I would prefer maximum punishments for those responsible forthe release. It would send a strong message to any others that might be thinking of similar releases as a way out.

 

[cjcj]

what are we talking about here, they MIGHT be infected? i might look like brad pitt, i might be from mar`s! until there is solid evidence i would1nt be worried.

 

[MarlandS]

Yeah but CJCJ , with the hit that the Canadian beef market took over Mad Cow and how paranoid all the state's are about CWD, caution would be prudent. It could really hurt a large potion of Canada's hunting industry.

 

[cjcj]

i understand that but let`s not overreact here, CWS has been found in utah N.M, and some other states, but you have to just use some common sense, if your animal look`s and act`s sick,then report it ,i just don`t want to see some sort of panic,as in y2k.

 

[MarlandS]

Some other states? Yeah Like Il and Wi. This shit is BAD. You don't want to see a panic like Y2K? That's all well and good but I don't want to see a nation-wide disease affecting the ungulates. Y2k was imagined, this stuff is real.

 

[cjcj]

see what i mean ! sound`s like your already starting to panic! have you ever seen it? do you know anyone who has killed or seen any wild game with it? do you really think anything can be done to stop it?

 

[MarlandS]

Starting to panic? You are grasping at straws there buddy. There's plenty of evidence on this forum, on the 'net , and through most every F&G dept. in the country.

You are in denial.

Too funny, you think that illegal aliens are a threat to our hunting but CWD isn't.

 

[cjcj]

what planet are you living on? illegal`s have destroyed eco-system`s, bring drug`s and gang`s and KILL people! there is NO scientific link between CWS and human health you are 100% WRONG, you just wont admit it! i tell the truth , and if you can`t handle it OH well.

 

[MarlandS]

Show me where I said CWD was a risk to human health? I said, oh never mind you wouldn't catch it anyway. Try to follow the conversation.
You are the one that is wrong and apparantly illiterate.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 06-08-2003 21:15: Message edited by: MarlandS ]</font>

 

[MarlandS]

What's the matter CJCJ? Got caught didn't you?

But ok since you are having trouble talking about the hazards to the hunting industry and the economic impact which ultimtely follows, which is what I was speaking of, I'll spell it out for you.

When deer and elk get CWD they DIE when enough of them DIE then the opportuntiies for you and I to hunt them get diminished, if enough of them DIE there are no more.

It's not you and I discussing it on a message board, it's the public in general who have heard of the link between Mad cow and CJD(which infects human), which will be the cry for human human health issues since CWD and Mad cow (BSE) are in the same family. So, ultimately THEY will believe (maybe rightly so maybe not ) that if Mad Cow can mutate then CWD may be able to also.

You can slam me for being from the East but I lived in AZ long enough to know why that state is screwed.

 

[MarlandS]

And just so you know when I said "Too funny, you think that illegal aliens are a threat to our hunting but CWD isn't." I was NOT making fun of you. I was musing that you were able to make the connection on the alien thing but not CWD .

CWD will be controlled because we (hunters) are allowed to go into "hotspots" and thin down the herds to (A) collect specimens and (B) to kill off the infected so they can't spread the disease.
We'll still have the illegal alien problem because they won't let us (A)kill any for specimens or (B) kill of the infected.

I know and understand what's up with illegal's , You MAY need to bone up some more on CWD. If that crap gets to the southern states (AL, miss, Louisiana) where the deer densities are very high and conditions are different than the west and north where it's "home" seems to be then the possiblity of mutations of CWD into something worse is entirely possible.

 

[cjcj]

hey i didn`t start off saying it wasn`t a problem CWD i just think [my opinion] that it get`s blown out of proportion, but then you started pushing my button`s,[illegal`s] and i probably overreacted,[took the bait] but since there is no link to the health in human`s than it [in my opinion] isn`t that big of a deal, do you know how to stop it? no you don`t, maybee it`s alway`s been in existance, why is it in some states and not other`s? it`s in utah,and new mexico but not az.? have you heard of any state with a major crisis? it seem`s to show up in isolated area`s so i don`t think it`s that big of a deal right now. so don`t panic, hey i hope it doesn`t grow but at this time i`m not worried about it.

 

[MarlandS]

Naww CJCJ I didn't mean to push your buttons I just didn't explain it like I did the second time the first time

anyway that's why I said you MAY need to bone up on it ,if memory serves it has been around for many many years , possibly forever but it wasn't until the close quarters of the game farm situaion did it develope into what it is now (maybe that environment mutated it from what it was ). No there haven't been any major crisis's but i think that is partly due to the fast action by the appropriate agencies.

The reason for it not being in AZ could be as simple as there haven't been any infected herds crossing borders. I don't know. But without some concern who's going to find out why?

Why wait until it becomes a big problem to worry about it?

 

[cjcj]

now i know why i never go east of the mississippi. DUH !

 

[BbarC]

Now here comes an old game ranchers 2 cents.The key word in that statement was OTENTIALLY".Who determined they were potentially sick?? Did they test any to see if they tested positive???????????Likely not!Inocent until guilty?? If this farmer did actually "turn out" his elk, he was certainaly a FOOL. He threw away lotsa money. Thousands of elk were slaughtered during the CWD scare, but only a handful of cases were actually detected. It caused millions of dollars losses to game farmers and to the hunting sport.This was exactly what the "anti's" hoped for and achieved. It did not originate on a game farm , but the farmers paid the price. It was like many of the issues today, IT WAS BLOWN WAY OUT OF PROPORTION. There is now a live test and the game farms will be the first to get a handle on the problem in their area. I did survive financially and will continue to raise my elk and other exotics. Ol Bob

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 06-09-2003 15:36: Message edited by: BbarC ]</font>

 

[RockyDog]

blown out of proportion my azz. You wouldnt be saying that if you lived in Wisc. or Sask.
Canada____

Canada To Kill Thousands Of Deer
In Bid To Stop Mad Deer Disease
>By James Parker
The (Saskatoon) StarPhoenix
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/pagea1.ihtml
7-21-1

Wisconsin (SAME)_____

The provincial government is planning to kill thousands of deer in a bid to control the spread of chronic wasting disease (CWD) in the wild.



http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/may02/40253.asp

http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/grisly113002.cfm

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 06-09-2003 16:44: Message edited by: RockyDog ]</font>

 

[Muledeer4me]

http://www.ifaw.org/page.asp?unitid=695


"Campaigning to Protect Hunted Animals (CPHA) is a broad-based campaign to end the cruel, unnecessary "sports" of fox, deer, hare and mink hunting with dogs. First formed in 1996 by IFAW, the RSPCA, the League Against Cruel Sports, CPHA is backed by a number of national organisations, prominent individuals and policy makers."

Here we go again Ithaca's link's supporting his view's go back to anit-hunting site's?
ifaw -------International Fund For Animal Welfare....
Im not blowing off the fact that there is cause for concern.
What concern's me more is how the anti-hunting crowd is jumping on this as a mean's to stop hunting,and it seem's to be working.

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 06-10-2003 08:07: Message edited by: Muledeer4me ]</font>